The following essay stresses the importance of teaching literary theory to students in the secondary schools, allowing them to see the world from multiple perspectives.

Wan and gaunt, a cerulean-eyed teenage boy named Michael White shifted restlessly in his seat. His teacher, Mrs. Black, was bloviating about literature again. She was discussing The Necklace, by Guy de Maupassant. Michael wished he had a necklace so he could choke himself with it. Literature made him want to vomit. He could not understand the recondite and mystical prose that certainly did not bear any discernible relation to his life. He felt helpless, hopeless, disconnected from the rest of the class who eagerly vivified the words that buried him in loneliness. As he sat there, his reticence and stern countenance were stark contrasts to the sibilant and enthusiastic voices resounding throughout the room. Nearly sleeping now from the teacher's prolix exegeses, he was startled awake by the sensation of a fly crawling on his arm. Fast as lightning he clasped the fly in his hand before it could escape.

English: Signature of Guy De Maupassant Français ...

English: Guy de Maupassant. Français : Guy de Mau...

Guy de Maupassant

Then, without provocation, he systematically and adroitly tore its wings off, his face expressionless like a mask. He quickly drew a circle on the tile floor with his pen and gently put the disabled imago in the center. The forlorn fly struggled to escape, but it was a fruitless effort; every time it advanced to overstep Michael's boundaries the forlorn boy thwarted its attempts, putting it back in the center again. After watching this for ten minutes, Mrs. Black accosted him in utter disgust. "What do you think you are doing, Michael"? she barked. Looking away, his heart almost breaking, he sadly and almost inaudibly uttered, " I am practicing to be a teacher.

Michael White, like so many other students around the world, thinks literature to anathema, although many of them actually have a facility for understanding and enjoying reading and analysis. They think it is their...